Introducing, Surviving and Thriving with AI: Jesenji Vivaldi Forum Mokrogorske

And there it was: Jesenji Vivaldi Forum Mokrogorska 2024.

The topic? Spot on: Introducing & Surviving AI.

I received the invite from Ivana Mihajlovic , the selector behind the program. Our first meeting was over a coffee just a few weeks earlier. Ivana had one simple question for me: What do you have to say about AI in HR or L&D? I told her about our journey at Kou?ing centar, and she said, “Talk about that!” Trust was instantly established. And just like that, we had our plan: real, raw, and fully trust-based.

Personal journey on Jesenji Vivaldi

I came to Mokrogorska on Wednesday evening along with Jugoslav Krstic , CTO at Kou?ing centar , a.k.a. my husband. We met some great people, reconnected with some old friends like Nikola ?urovi? . The first evening, we listened to Yebiga panel, moderated by Djordje Vukotic from HOOLOOVOO with Sr?an Miljevi? (Jebiga store) and Bill Gould (Yebiga rakija & Faith No More). Had some great fun. Since we were a bit tired, skipped the party and went to our room. I decided to draft something I was to say tomorrow, although I was in a mindset of not preparing too much and improvising. So I wrote the speech, asked my personal custom gpt for feedback and it said go. So I did.

The morning of the show

Next morning we had breakfast, rakija, coffee and I chatted with Sanja Miladinovic and Mirjana Todorovic who were also speakers that day. Exchanged our views on life, universe, HR and AI in brief and went off for the show.

The title was "Moderni smo, majke mi" (Introducing AI). Aleksandra Miladinovic from EBRD moderated the panel along with Mladen Mojsilovi? from STAX Technologies and Ivana Kappenmann from Vega IT . I was impressed by the innovation spirit, entrepreneurship and mindset at STAX Academy . It was really inspiring to listen to innovative ways of connecting young unemployed people with real job opportunities, as well as ways of investing in their education with the support from EBRD .

Then came Sanja Miladinovic and talked about ways of integrating AI at 爱立信 . Sanja mentioned many things that resonated with me very well and I was happy to hear about all the things she and her team were doing with AI in HR. It was great to follow after Sanja and continue where she ended her talk. Mirjana Todorovic took the stage after me and led us to the journey of values at the centre of all we do with AI - 宜家 way. Sanda Savic introduced what Hemofarm A.D. and STADA Group are doing with AI to build awareness of health and health promotion.

And since our kids were waiting for us (majke mi) with my mom grannysitting, we had to say goodbye and hit the road back home to Belgrade. With plenty of impressions, laughs, insights and connections.

Kou?ing centar innovations at Jesenji Vivaldi

Basically, I talked about 4 phases of innovation at Kou?ing centar, with AI being the most recent one:

1. Phase 1. "Lokalci, majke mi" (Locals, for real): 2013-2017. This phase was all about building and demonstrating local capabilities in designing and delivering corporate L&D. I started the company with this idea in mind and it remained our modus operandi. In the process, we built local capability in L&D, with a grand vision of building a local reputation of this profession internationally. That is how our first internationally accredited programs in coaching started with International Society for Coaching Psychology .
2. Phase 2. "Uvoz znanja, ali samo strate?ki, majke mi" (Buying knowledge strategically only, for real): 2017-2020. Searching for someone who knows team coaching best in the world. Found Professor Peter Hawkins , learned from him, brought his Systemic Team Coaching program for the first time in Serbia in 2018. Put team coaching on our local map. Continued to build local expertise and integrate various approaches in team coaching. As described in my book "Coaching Psychology: Constructivist Approaches" by Taylor & Francis Group .
3. Phase 3. "Digitalna ekspanzija, majke mi" (Digital expansion, for real): 2020-2023. It was March 2020. Just got an International Coaching Federation accreditation for one of our programs. And then COVID started with a lockdown. Need to do a quick transition to digital. The one that would fundamentally change the way we operate. From an in person local provider, into an online international provider of ICF accredited programs and other L&D offer for organizations all over the world. Technology became important for us for the first time. That is when Jugoslav Krstic stepped in as a CTO. A switch from a startup into a scaleup.
4. Phase 4. "AI mo?e, majke mi" (AI can do it, for real): 2023-now. I wasn't much of an AI fan at first. Thought: "What does it have to do with me and my company". It was an almost year long story through 2023 until somewhere by the end of the year I started to get into it. One day Jugoslav bought the book "Co-intelligence: Living and working with AI" by Ethan Mollick . I "stole" the book and started building custom gpts for AI Tutor, AI Mentor and AI Coach. Did some research on AI Metacognition on coaching tasks . Learned a lot. We figured out that we needed our own tech and partnered with Levi9 Technology Services , who helped us build the app in just a couple of monthes. It was Viktor Kovac and Mirjana Trobok to whom we are deeply grateful for this partnership. We called the app Coachia. In June 2024 it was built. Over the summer tested. On September 4th put into life as an augmentation of our coaching certification programs. Our first corporate client for "Leader as Coach" program with Coachia: HOOLOOVOO . Collecting user feedback for 2 weeks now.

Back to now. Further development of MVP version of Coachia. Received award from the Fond za inovacionu delatnost . A lot of tech development ahead. What we want is to:

• move from text to voice
• role model AI safety and security
• build an agentic AI platform for human skills development
• incorporate a gaming touch to AI Simulator
• build internal tech capabilities to own the development process going forward
• and who knows what else throughout our journey.

?Is this the beginning of Phase 5? Maybe. We don't know. We have technology, psychology, research and gaming all together. We want to merge tech development with psychological research, product development, user feedback and a touch of creativity and gamification. Maybe Industry 5.0? Maybe. The working title is from "Lokalci, majke mi" to "AI lokalci, majke mi".

Closing note

It was fun. I am deeply grateful to Ivana Mihajlovic for trusting me just based on a recommendation from Ana Stanic and 1 coffee together. I am also deeply grateful to Katarina Bratic for amazing spirit and hospitality. Mokrogorska rocks and I have a hunch we will be seeing each other a lot more in future. Winter Vivaldi is already open for applications, I think.

In the end, this is just a story of how it is all about people. Sparks, connections, vanity free, authentic, show your passion... People meeting people to enable innovations. That is what this Jesenji Vivaldi Forum Mokrogorska was all about. Thank you for the experience.